Four of Cups

Pleasure in excess often leads to the stagnation of that pleasure and the
desire for even greater things which are simply impossible. This is the
lesson of the Four of Cups, a card that urges moderation in relationships and
all matters of the heart. This is an apparently good and innocent card with
a nasty sting lying in wait. Usually it signals a person who is surrounded
by love and devotion, totally happy with himself and the life he has made.
But the danger in this situation is this: if you take love for granted, you
start losing it.

This statment makes more sense than you might think. If someone is loved for
a long period of time, warmly and unconditionally, then they start to forget
what it is like to be unloved and alone. And when you deliberately forget
about the darkness, it makes special effort to show itself again. After all,
the light cannot be truly appreciated if we have nothing to compare it with.
The scary part is that you usually bring about the darkness by yourself, by
taking for granted the love and affection you receive. Carelessness sets in
and soon everything you cared for - and everyone that cared for you - has
slipped away.

When the Four of Cups appears it must be taken as a warning. It bears the
message that there is a lot of love in your life - but that it can and will
slip away if you are not careful. If you see this card and think that there
isn't a lot of love in your life, it is a sign to think again. Take a good
long look at your life, and you'll see how much love there is in it. Most of
the time, people do not realize the abundance they live in every day. They
are too concerned with what they want, and they have no time to look at their
lives and see how much they already have.

This is not to say, by any means, that you cannot strive for more in life.
When you have no ambitions left, your life will start to stagnate, and you
will lose interest in the things that once gave you the greatest pleasure.
Having no ambition is worse than having ambitions and standards that are too
lofty to reach - but not much worse. A lot of the disappointment in life
comes from people who want more, but who already have all that they need.
The key to overcoming this disappointment is simply to see all the good that
is in your life already, and be thankful for it every day. So open up your
eyes and look for yourself!

This page was made by James Rioux (The Black Shadow), bshadow@nbnet.nb.ca.
Copyright 2000 James Rioux.